This invention pertains to racks or hangers for clothing accessories such as ties, belts and scarfs.
The art is replete with racks of various designs as exemplified by the patents enumerated below, subdivided into Design and Utility patents.
D U.S. Pat. No. 167,986 depicts a tiehanger using the basic frame of a clothes hanger wherein the transverse rod that normally supports a garment is extended to two outward inclined legs. Along the inclined legs, adjacent, arcuate pockets are formed on each leg at several levels. Each pocket supports a tie.
D U.S. Pat. No. 211,795 shows a tierack with a hook at its upper end for attachment to a shaft. Suspended from the hook are a plurality of aligned, zig-zag surfaces, each surface used for mounting ties at the bottom end of the aforesaid zig-zag surfaces. At the bottom of the device there are a pair of parallel hooks perpendicular to the hook above the zig-zag surfaces.
D 298,782 illustrates a triangular like shaped tiehanger with a vertical member bisecting its base and extending upwadly to end in a hook. At equally proportioned levels of each side is a rod supported in grooves in the triangular like member. The rods are positioned in an alternate arrangement with respect to each side.
D U.S. Pat. No. 394,557 is another clothes hanger style tierack, wherein the triangular member depending from the hook is made of a solid member of substantial thickness having a plurality of rods projecting perpendicularly outward from both sides of the solid member. The rods are equally spaced each from other at two levels. The lower level rods are interspersed between the upper level rods, and the rods on each side of the thickened member are in different planes.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,401,835 teaches a delivery rack for neckties or similar apparel. A wired hook member is is secured to a trapezoidal shaped thin plate having about five shaped openings for insertion and support of the ties. The shaped openings are arranged so that there is a central opening, spaced evenly between two upper laterally spaced openings and two lower laterally spaced openings.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,783,995 shows a tie rack using a rectangular single piece injection molded flat plastic body with a hook at its upper end. The body is reenforced by a thickened bead at its sides and upper end that terminates in a hook. A central portion between the bead ends has a plurality of transverse, vertically spaced openings in its upper region. In each of the openings is a hinged flap portion so that it can be received therein and held in place by the hinged flaps.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,887,079 shows a triangularly shaped multipurpose clothes hanger having attached to its apices an oppositely oriented triangular member. The opposite triangular member has a plurality of spaced arcuate surfaces along the inlined legs of the triangular member for mounting a number of secondary clothes hangers. This arrangement is suitable in a confined space of a small closet.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,667 is a combination tierack that supports untied and pretied neckties. A rectangular plate is telescopically received in C-shaped end brackets with fasteners passing through the member and bracket for attaching the rack to a vertical support surface. The rack has sockets from which posts extend, and on which neckties can be draped over. Wire loops extend between the posts. The loops have ends that are received in the sockets, and are spaced between the posts to support pretied neckties.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,951,270 depicts a tierack for preknotted neckties. The rack includes a plurality of flat wire frames supported in a horizontal row. The frames are spaced apart so as to form vertical receiving slots on both sides of the assembly. Stops are provided for supporting the lowermost tie in each receiving slot. The ties are suspended from a centered hook which is swivelly mounted.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,191 describes a tie rack for conventional neck ties and pretied ties, wherein a vertical leg of a flange is secured to a support member. The horizontal leg comprises a plurality of first and second slots, the second slots being separated from the first slots and having wider spacing to support knotted ties. The untied tie is looped through the adjacent first slots. Instead of using a right angles flange, a hook can extend from an intermediate vertical member and slots as described above can be fashioned on opposite horizontal members.
Accordingly it is an object of this invention to produce a simple, inexpensive structure wherein all functions are carried out by one, integrated unit.
It is a further object of this invention to design a rack or hanger which can accommodate over two dozen apparel items, all of which are easily accessible.
It is still an object of this invention to produce a product which can be suspended from a closet pole or alternatively fastened to a structure like a closet door without requiring additional accessories.
It is also an object of this invention to produce a rack or hanger which is attractive and can easily be identified in a dimly lit closet.
It is an additional object of this invention to make a variety of configurations to afford the consumer a number of options.
The rack of the present invention is a shaped structure capable of supporting a plurality of unknotted neckties or other apparel accessories. The rack can be suspended from a closet rod or the rack can be mounted on a structure such as a closet door. The rack is made from a flat, injection molded, thermosetting plastic such as a polyester. The supports for the apparel accessories are arranged in stepped fashion configured from cutouts in the plastic. The steps are symmetrically arranged on each side of the shaped structure, wherein there are at least two rows of steps spaced from each other. With the exception of U.S. Pat. No. ""270, many more apparel accessories can be stored in the present device; moreover, U.S. Pat. No. ""270 is for preknotted ties, which is not the usual mode of manufacture in today""s market. The rack is also coated with a fluorescent paint so that it is conspicuous in a dimly lit area from amongst a multitude of clothes hangers.
The rack of this continuation in part invention describes other embodiments not shown in the original invention. For example the apparel rack can be configured to have only one set of symmetrically aligned steps. There is greater rigidity because of the use of support blocks integral with a centrally located stem. The racks can be provided with a number of perforations at different locations in the rack for insertion of a fastener for securing the rack to a support as an alternative to the use of the hook or ringlets as shown in the original invention. The steps can be cut out from converging sides or diverging sides of an overlying framework as shown in FIGS. 1 and 5 of the original application, but there are no cutouts in the frame between sets of steps.